Passion drives teaching

When an industry or profession experiences fundamental, perhaps foundational, change, it can impose a great strain on one's passion for it. We're experiencing that in the newspaper industry nationwide; not only do fewer people read newspapers, but fewer people read, period (no, Facebook and Twitter don't count). Yet no less is society's need for news. So our whole world is changing; it feels very different.

Change isn't necessarily bad, but it is stressful. Passion, a love of one's avocation, carries us through shifting tides.

Another fundamental element of a healthy democracy and one with perhaps the highest power to influence reading - education - is also changing. From pre-kindergarten to bachelor's degrees, everyone seems to be screaming "reform," but what shape such new forms should take has become an exhaustive and explosive argument.

Imagine being a teacher at the center of it all. Your livelihood, your everyday reality, your passion (and really, could anyone face a sea of someone else's kids day after day, year after year, without a love for teaching?) is free fodder for public rancor. Not an easy time to be a teacher.

So during this Teacher Appreciation Week, "thanks" is only the beginning. It may behoove all to consider more deeply that passion which drives one to teach. Despite a career-long need to do "homework." Despite the snotty noses, continual exposure to all those viruses brought to class, the tears, the hyperactivity, the defiance, seeing effects of poverty/abuse/heartbreaks while feeling helpless to change them or know what will happen to the students who face them, the seemingly endless forms and evaluations and politics, somehow the passion survives.

There are easier ways to make a living. But those don't include the pure joy when a light bulb goes on in a previously confused little head. They probably don't offer the occasional wildflower picked while walking to school, offered by a little hand (sticky from breakfast, which hopefully was healthy to fuel learning and calm behavior). Other jobs don't allow one to write a recommendation that may be the turning point in a senior's admission to a high-ranked college, thus altering his life path. There are quick clean-ups after someone is sick, yes, but they tend to come with looks of deep gratitude, even affection.

We all remember certain teachers. How many technicians, office workers, and insurance agents influence so long and potentially so broadly? That is the reward, the heart of this passion. The gift that is teaching.

Yet this gift by nature is not one routinely offered or able to opened; the challenges, at least as numbered day-to-day, tend to outnumber the gifts, even if the gifts have far greater value and impact. So this week, just for a little while, please suspend the "buts" which accompany talk of reform, and join me in simply appreciating not only teachers, but teaching. Better yet, express it.

Passion may drive excellence, but there is no substitute for feeling valued.

Sholeh Patrick, J. D. thanks the teachers who wipe snotty noses, patiently endure tantrums, and inspired herself, her children, and all children to learn and grow. Contact her at [email protected].